June 5, 2012

Documentary film mosaic of Kansas history made by K-State faculty and students

"She Told Me Stories" is built from interviews with unofficial historians of Kansas – community chroniclers, family record-keepers, historical society volunteers, cultural center organizers. K-State faculty and students from the departments of women's studies and history interviewed historians in several Kansas towns: Manhattan — Rosa Hickman, Annalise Nguyen and Gerry Baker Walton all appear in the film; Alma; Nicodemus; the Kickapoo Nation; Westmoreland; Clay Center; Beloit; Garden City; and Topeka. The film presents these stories thematically, to offer a mosaic of the stories we keep and tell about our state.

The film will be screened for the first time in Manhattan from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 9, in the Groesbeck Meeting Room on the second floor of the Manhattan Public Library.

From 1:30-3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 10, will be a follow-up event. Community members are invited to bring objects that are meaningful from their own families. Object and owner will be photographed, and project staff will record the owner's stories and memories about the object, how they came to have it, etc. It will be like "Antiques Roadshow," but rather than coming to get an appraisal, you come to share the wealth of what these things mean for you.

The combination of the screening and the follow-up event offer a glimpse of the diversity of Kansas history, and also continues to develop an ongoing archive of Kansas stories.